Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co, and Japanese financial services group Nomura Holdings have agreed to buy global forestry manager New Forests for an undisclosed amount.
Mitsui, a shareholder in New Forests since 2016, will increase its shareholding from approximately 23% to 49%. Nomura will own 41%, and New Forests’ management will own the remaining 10%.
As part of this agreement, founder, CEO and chairman David Brand will continue with New Forests until 30 June 2025 and focus on strategic initiatives and growth opportunities.
Brand said Mitsui and Nomura will provide New Forests with the support to ”further scale our business and provide new opportunities for our clients, stakeholders and our 100 staff”.
The two investors will inject capital to support the Sydney-based forestry manager’s strategic growth initiatives and the global expansion of its investment platform, which currently manages A$7.8bn (€5.2bn) in assets under management across 1.1m hectares of investments.
Hiroshi Kakiuchi, managing officer, COO of the performance materials business unit at Mitsui said: “Mitsui’s investment in New Forests is part of our sustainability strategy to invest in companies which are at the forefront of climate change mitigation and which are positively contributing to communities.”
Yoshihiro Namura, senior managing director and head of the investment management division at Nomura said: “As a large global financial services group, we play a significant role in helping to solve environmental challenges, and we see investment in sustainable land use and forestry as a key part of the solution.”
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